living in tconflict, religious conflicts, ethnic conflicts, tribal conflicts. and they know something better's out there. as the g-8 leaders met today, who's listening in? information from nsa leaker edward snowden reveals the british government spied on world leaders at two london summits in 2009, probably with u.s. help. and snowden strikes again, fighting back in a web chat today on "the guardian's" website. the nsa leaker says "these nakedly aggressively criminal acts are wrong no matter the target." and he tells other potential leakers, "this country is worth dying for." what does the architect of even more extensive surveillance say about the leaker? >> i think he's a traitor. i think he has committed crimes, in effect, by violating the agreements given the position he

had. >> we'll discuss. and, raising the stakes on immigration. republican senator lindsey graham issues a stark warning to his conservative colleagues. >> if we don't pass immigration reform, if we don't get it off the table in a reasonable, practical way, it doesn't matter who you run in 2016, we're in a demographic death spiral as a party. >> and was it a super steal or a big misunderstanding? new england patriots owner robert kraft claims that president putin pocketed his super bowl ring during a 2005 meeting in st. petersburg. putin says the ring was given to him as a gift. president obama now asked f for back today? probably not. good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president obama is minutes away from a face to face meeting with vladimir putin. they haven't always gotten along well. they are re-engaging an icy relationship that doesn't have much chance after thaw-out today thanks to two major topics,

syria and spying. joining me for our "daily fix," chris celissa and mark, first to you. you have acovered so many of these summits and you know the background for putin going in and all of the tension over syria. what do you think -- is there any chance today that when obama and putin meet they will come to any closer agreement on assad and the rebels? >> i think it is hard to see, andrea. the russians have been so clear down their line on syria. they've even gone so far as to say they're going to deliver missiles that they promised to sell to the assad regime which is something the united states has said would really torpedo chances of a political resolution to this. so if there is any kind of an agreement or a sense of more common ground it is going to represent a break-through. it's been a very, very frustrating relationship. john kerry's had multiple

unsuccessful meetings with the rgs foreign minister. it will be interesting to watch. >> chris, this comes of course as snowden is again on the web tod today, again towing shots at president obama. disagreeing with those who say he couldn't have possibly had access that he claims he had. >> it's so fascinating first that this is such a uniquely 21st century way that it played out that he's in an undisclosed location but he's doing a web chat? the power that he has to communicate his message i think does reach everyone at the g-8. i would say its impact -- golly. you know, i think it is hard to assess. i think to mark's point, when we are dealing with these huge geopolitical issues, in a way it is sort after sideline issue -- but, like it is in this country, andrea, it is something that the president's going to get asked

about repeatedly. it's something he's going to have to continue to address. they've held a very consistent stance on this, which is this is about national security, this is a necessity to preserve the country from future attacks. snowden, interestingly in the chat today, did say, look, i didn't -- he answered critics who said about military targets and he may have endangered people. he said this is about civilians and this is about sort of this is unacceptable in america. so sticking to his main line of thought. >> in fact, one of the things that he revealed in today atoda "guardian" spyingly leaders of the uk with american help. there's no denials. i've spoken to brits and u.s. officials. basically the bottom line is, countries have always done this. >> yeah, they do. what it does do for president obama, which is problematic, it robs him of much moral authority in talking about this. there was a similar analogy a

few weeks ago when he met with the president of china and pushed him very hard on cyber security and theft of i.t. and the chinese president pushed back, well, you guys do this. you've done it to iran, to other countries. you've worked with israel and done it. so it is sort of difficult for the u.s. to make these sorts of arguments. and a reminder that all countries engage in this behavior. >> and in fact what snowden had also revealed to the south china "post" in long hong is that we have been hacking the chinese so that's certainly undercut the president's argument. and president xi did not stay at sunnylands because we were told he wanted to stay at the nearby hotel. >> he was worried about eavesdropping. >> being bugged. which brought to mind overnight as i was covering this latest posting in "the guardian," it brought to mind a piece we did on "nightly news" in 1995 about obama administration era cia spying on the japanese.

let's watch. >> february, 1994. the president meets the japanese prime minister in the oval office, a trade war is brewing. three days earlier the prime minister had sent a secret emissary to see mr. clinton and try to resolve the dispute. nbc news has learned that when the special envoy got back leer to his hotel, and called tokyo, the u.s. intercepted his call. the white house had a transcript within hours. and that's not all. the miami summit later that year. the president meets with heads of state from all over the hemisphere. what the foreign leaders didn't know, but nbc has been told, the super secret national security agency had "wired the place" to eavesdrop on the president's guests. in fact, the u.s. listens in on governments and businesses around the world, friend and foe alike. cost -- $10 billion a year. >> well, it is deja vu all over again. i had said obama but i obviously meant the clinton white house.

chris cillizza, there is nothing new -- some things are new. the surveillance is new because the technology has improved. >> the technology -- exactly. technology has come a long way. but to mark your point, andrea, the motive behind using the technology has not. one other thing -- i love the vintage andrea mitchell footage on the show. and two, i would point out, go back even further -- 1970. there was a cover of "newsweek," a colleague of mine pointed this out to me this morning. 1970 on the cover of "newsweek" is the privacy age over? 1970. the more things change -- >> and just quickly, mark landler, i want to ask you about iran. we'll talk to our bureau chief in tehran, but the whole notion that they now think at the white house they can restart nuclear talks successfully, potentially, in august, it may just be them kidding themselves, because an iranian "moderate" isn't a moderate by other means and it is still the ayatollah who

decides yay or nay. >> that's right. i think we all have to stop using the label "moderate" for rohani. he's a more moderate voice than some of the hardliners running for the job, but the truth is he is arock-solid staunchly loyal member of the cleric inner circle. he also ran iran's nuclear negotiations for years and he ran them in such a way iran was able to continue developing its nuclear capability, in effect stringing along the west. so i imagine the white house is probably looking at this guy and thinking, we need to proceed very cautiously. it is a hopeful sign in the sense that he's not the hardest line candidate who could have won. on the other hand, he's a guy who's been around many times and he's a believer in their nuclear program. >> mark landler, thank you so much. chris cillizza, thank you. today the supreme court ruled against the state of arizona in a 7-2 decision that

states cannot require prospective voters to prove that they are u.s. citizens in order to fill out a federal voter registration form. nbc news chief justice correspondent pete williams joins me now from the supreme court. pete, this was an important ruling and we still have several very big ones to come. let's discuss. >> reporter: right. well, the supreme court said today that arizona violated a two decade old law called the motor voter law. what it says is you can register to vote when you get your driver's license, but it also says you can register to vote by mail. if you do that, you fill out a federal form. you check a box that says "i am a u.s. citizen," and then you sign it swearing that everything you said was true. arizona took a step further. in 2004 by a vote of the people, it passed proposition 200 which required people to provide proof that they were u.s. citizens and a number of people challenged that law. groups that said it was extra hard on people who were naturalized citizens, that they would have to go through hurdles that other people did not, and

the supreme court agreed with them today by a 7-2 vote. the issue was a very narrow one, andrea. it was how to read the law. the federal law says the states must accept and use the federal form. arizona said, well, we accept it. we just require a little more. and the supreme court said, no, in this contempt "accept" means you have to use it as it is written. they said to arizona if you want to ask the federal government to change the form, go ahead. and if they won't, you can go back to court and try again. but for now the arizona law is dead. it was on hold anyway. it was used once in 2006. but not since then. and now it's dead in the water. >> and now what does this mean for thursday, next monday, then the following thursday? only a couple of days left. >> reporter: well, for sure this thursday. for sure next monday for decisions. we don't know any days beyond that. we think there will be additional days. 14 cases left, including the two cases about same-sex marriage, the challenge to prop 8 in california and the federal defense of marriage act.

the big challenge to the voting rights act and the question about how much states can use affirmative action in school admissions. >> busy calendar. thanks so much, pete williams. meanwhile, union leaders and political rivals in turkey, rivals of turkey's prime minister have rallied thousands to hold a one-day strike today protesting against sunday's violent clashes between police and protesters in istanbul and ankara, the capital. more than 441 people were detained as police fired teargas and water cannons on demonstrators. prime minister erdowan ordered them removed from the park which has become the center of anti-government protests for the past several weeks. mail? i did. so what did you think of the house? well it's got a great kitchen, but did you see the school rating? oh, you're right. oh hey babe, i got to go. ok. come here sweetie, say bye to daddy. bye daddy! have a good day at school ok? ok. ...but what about when my parents visit? i just don't think there's enough room. lets keep looking.

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with russia's vladimir putin. could take on the mood of an old-fashioned cold war summit.

their chief disagreement, syria and the white house decision to start arming the rebels. that's only one of a number of very edgy topics on the table today. maybe even a very large diamond encrusted super bowl ring. nbc chief white house correspondent chuck todd is live in ireland. it is so beautiful there. we are all envious. your location, the experience of covering a summit. once again there is a summit that's supposedly about the global economy but of course, the war, the political conflict, top of mind is syria. >> that's right. this was all supposed to be about figuring out how to help europe's economy get out of its recession as fast as the u.s. has done. talk of a big trade pact. granted, that's still happening. but syria is the dominant topic. the president meets with vladimir putin on the schedule it is supposed to be in about 15 minutes. we expect it to be a 60 to 90-minute bilat cal session. then the two leaders will speak

afterwards. now judging by the tone of the bilateral meeting -- at least the read-out of the meeting that putin had with david cameron in london yesterday, whether it came to the issue of syria, it would be surprising if somehow they came out with some break-through about what to do next. as you know, the united states position is try to convince putin that it is in his best interests to essentially push assad out and help keep assad's regime at the negotiating table. it is a tricky deal for the u.s. to sell. we'll see if putin is listening. >> who else might be listening? edward snowden, as you know, went online in a web chat, as we understand according to "the guardian" today, he's pushing back against claims he couldn't have had access to everything he had access to and he seems very confident. i know that it is no secret that leaders spy on leaders, but he keeps leaking very carefully

selected documents last week in china, this week at the summit. he certainly is sort of ankle-biting the administration. how concerned are they about this? >> reporter: well, they're trying to say pay no attention to this. they're shocked, shocked that there's gambling going on here, that of course other countries spy on other countries all the time, that this has been going on for quite some time. but beyond that, they know it is kind of embarrassing. they think it is more embarrassing for the uk than it is for the united states. but of course what could become a more tense part of the bilateral today between putin and obama is the allegation in that "guardian" piece that the nsa and u.s. half of this was spying on medvedev and was listening in to his conversations to try to figure out what was going on at that g-20. putin is the type of guy who might bring it up as a way to need the president as they are trying to have their back and forths. of course the president might

come back with the robert kraft super bowl ring story to push back. >> tell us about that. i don't know if you've ever seen a super bowl ring. those that i've seen are enormous. they look like you could brass knuckle somebody with them. just how did robert kraft end up taking off his ring? he's of course the patriots' owners and showing it to putin? and then putin pocketed the ring? you've got a picture! we've got a picture. this is so cool. discuss. >> all of this, there seems to be something -- to me, there's probably more to this story. couple of rich guys showing off. right? was kraft showing him the rick? maybe putin really did think it was a gift so he pocketed it, maybe he wasn't sure. maybe it was a joke. i feel like we need a lot more information about this story before we go off half-cocked about trying to figure out who did what, when, where. >> the man in the middle is

rupert murdoch. there are a couple of rich guys in that room. thank you so much, chuck. i hope you get some time to enjoy the irish countryside. i know the schedule is really daunting but, god, it's beautiful there. >> it's picturesque. it looks great. i could tell you that. i'd like to -- we'll see if we get a little more up close and personal. >> is that a real countryside? are you standing in front after green screen? >> it's a real countryside! it's fantastic. it is unbelievable. it is as if hollywood made the set. >> remind me of the first time i went to bali with ronald reagan. meanwhile back here at home, out west firefighters are getting the upper hand on wildfires burning in colorado. the black forest fire is now 65% contained. thanks to cooler temperatures and steady rain on sunday. some residents have already been aloud back in to their homes, though officials say the majority of evacuees will have

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there are reports in hong kong that edward snowden wants the u.n. human rates commission to give him refugee status. joining us now from hong kong, nbc's ian williams. ian, what do you know about the reports? able to confirm anything? >> reporter: well, this is one of the options that's always been open to snowden, to go to the unhcr and register as a refugee here. this place was rife with rumors all this afternoon going round legal circles saying that he had done just that, that he'd's registered for refugee status. we've not been able to confirm that. we went along to the unhcr this afternoon and they told us they could not comment on individual

cases as they put it. nor would they say how long it would take if he had registered to determine whether he had a case. now this is just one of the options open to him and this is separate from going to the hong kong government and appealing for asylum. so we have no confirmation at this point but is clearly something that would be a first step for him, and in some respects quite a logical one. >> ian, i know you've been tracking "the guardian" web chat he's been doing today. in response to one question why did he go to hong kong, not iceland or another country, because people have been raising thei the issue, "i had to travel to with no advance booking to a country with the cultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained. hong kong provided that. iceland could be pushed harder, quicker before the public could

have a chance to make their feelings know and i would not put that past the current administration." the chinese we've seen have been protesting, some protest is in spo support of edward snowden, he had an interview with the south china morning post which revealed, in his view -- at least his knowledge, that the u.s. has been hacking the chinese. are the chinese authorities actively supporting or encouraging this kind of protest now? >> well, the chinese authorities in beijing have been pretty tight lipped about this. i mean at a briefing today, the foreign ministry up there said -- denied in quite strong terms that he was a spy for china. now i thought when he first came to hong kong that it was a pretty odd choice because generally speaking, people who are requested to be surrendered, is the term here, for extra digs, generally tend to be sent back. it can take a long time but they

go back. hong kong's not been great at giving asylum status, either. a lot of us thought well, why come here? but actually as the days have gone by, it's beginning to look pretty smart because this place affords all sorts of different legal mechanisms, all sorts of different potential delays an appeals within the system. two different sorts of asylum application. a very long extradition procedure and of course you are at the nexus here between hong kong and china which is a little bit of an uncomfortable relationship at times, along with the u.s. in other words, this provides a great stage and one in which he can make his opinions known over quite a considerable time, andrea. >> ian williams, it all is very complicated and very uncomfortable for the u.s. administration and the intelligence community. thank you, ian. meanwhile, there are celebrations in iran this weekend after votes overwhelmingly chose hassan row

with hani, to replace the much edgier controversial mahmoud ahmadinejad. nbc's ali arouzi is in tehran where he just attended rohani's first press conference. what comes to mind immediately, is this election going to change anything, policy on critical issues of the nuclear program, the involvement in syria's civil war? >> well, andrea, it is a very tough question. right now we've just seen a softening in tone but we haven't seen a shift in policy. he's been a very soft spoken man. at the press conference today, i asked him if he was willing to engage directly with america and he laughed a little bit and said you're asking me a very tough question. but he made a very revealing sound bite. he said iran and america's relationship is like the wound that hasn't healed yet and we mustn't look back. we must go forward, as long as iran respects -- america respects iran's rights and doesn't meddle in its internal

affairs. we haven't really heard that from an iranian president before. he touched on the nuclear issue saying he wants iran to be more transparent on the nuclear issue but ruled out stopping enrichment which is also very telling. we shouldn't be throwing our hands up in the air too early right now. head of the iaea today issued a statement saying that iran was making steady progress in the nuclear issue and sanctions haven't slowed it down. we have to see how much play mr. rowhani has exactly and we mustn't forget he's only the second-most powerful man in the country. he has to defer to the supreme leader who has the final say on all matters of state, foreign policy and the nuclear issue. but we are certainly seeing a much, much softer tone here, something we haven't really seen in the last eight years here, andrea. >> this is all so interesting, but as you point out, it is too early for american negotiators and officials to break out the champagne because nothing will change unless the supreme leader

decides that he wants to take a different tack. we should also point out that only a couple of weeks ago the u.s. again declared iran the most significant source of terror in the world according to the u.s. administration and went ahead and tightnd sanctions. so there is a lot of that wound that needs to be healed, is still breeding pretty profusely, to use their metaphor. thanks for the update. meanwhile, a group of graduating high school seniors in atlanta were in for quite the surprise. maya angelou suddenly appeared on stage to deliver the commencement address. the poet delighted the standing room only crowd at ron clark academy friday as she challenged the class of 2013 to inspire the world. >> an attitude of graditude. you can say ♪ when it looked like the sun ain't shining anymore ♪ i am willing to be a rainbow in

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♪ 'cause the only good weed is a weed that's dead ♪ ♪ roundup yeha! [ whip cracks ] [ male announcer ] roundup... [ whip cracks ] with the new one-touch wand. welcome back. after leaving a state department office vacant, president obama has finally chosen someone. clifford sloan, a high-profile washington lawyer to be the state department's special envoy for closing down the prison at guantanamo. but the house has now voted overwhelmingly to once again block the president from closing gitmo. joining me now by phone from guantanamo bay is the most veteran of all guantanamo reporte reporters, the "miami herald's" carol rosenberg. carol, are the detainees still on hunger strike, still in isolation, and will it make any difference now that cliff sloan has been appointed? >> yes, andrea, there's still 104 of the 166 detainees on

hunger strike as of this morning. navy troops are tube feeding, or as the president calls it, force feeding 44 of the hunger striking detainees. they've been on strike for about four months and first thing we learned today at the hearing with khalid shaikh mohammed is that the 9/11 accused are not on a hunger strike. they look fit. they look like they're eating and in fact we're in a lunch recess where they've been given an opportunity to pray and have lunch. as for clifford sloan, i have to tell you, it was a bit of a surprise. people down here didn't immediately recognize his name and we know, as established, he's not a career diplomat. so it looks like this is a choice to lobby the hill on reducing restrictions. if you recall the last person who had this job was a career diplomat, and his focus was lobbying europe, primarily, to resettle detainees that were cleared through the process.

now the process is stalled. congress has imposed restrictions and it looks like cliff sloan is the man to go up to the hill to try to persuade them to let them start reducing the population through transfers one at a time to countries that are willing to resettle the men that were cleared for release in 2010. >> i'm fascinated by whatever interaction there might have been. under what conditions does khalid shaikh mohammed appear in the courtroom? is he in isolation? is there sort of a glass box around him? does he actually sit in the courtroom and are you able to sit there and watch this man? >> well, just the opposite. he sits inside this maximum security courtroom with his four defendants. each one in a chair unshackled next to their defense lawyers. military and civilian. and there are guards lining the walls but he's allowed to sit there like any other defendant. we, the media, and the public that have come down here,

including victims, for example, new york city firefighters, sit inside a glass room with a 40-second delay. we hear what goes on in court 40 seconds after it is said, in case khalid shaikh mohammed or any of the other men describe what happened to them, where they were held, how they were interrogated. in the four years they were held by the cia before they got to guantanamo in 2006. they look like ordinary defendants with one key exception -- they are allowed to choose their attire. and today khalid shaikh mohammed and another of the defendants came to court in paramilitary attire. a courtesy, the judge, an army colonel allowed them. he was wearing a woodland pattern camouflage jacket over his more traditional white clothes and had a turban on his

head. behind him, another defendant was wearing navy desert camouflage. it is quite a sight because these are the men accused of putting together the plot of the september 11th attacks and they want to be considered as soldiers, paramilitary, just like everyone else in court. the prosecution, the defense lawyers, the judge, and this is a courtesy the judge has allowed them. at this point during the pre-trial hearings. the prosecution opposed it. the prison didn't like it. the defense attorneys said they should be allowed to wear the attire of their choice as they appear in these pre-trial hearings before a panel of military officers come to the tribunal that will ultimately judge them. probably a trial that won't start until, at the earliest, late next year. >> carol, briefly, did you get any reaction afterwards from the new york city firefighters or some of the other victims who were down there?

>> we saw them last night. i haven't seen them this morning. and it is a very emotional group. they have a hard time understanding how u.s. military officers could be defending these men. and a lot of them have waited, as they've said, 12 long years for this moment an they know the trial is not for a long time to come. so it is an emotional visit. >> there's also a closed session on the "uss cole." can you brief us on that? >> yes. last week was the first closed session where there were arguments in a hearing in a motion that's so secret it has no name. the lawyers went in for the defense and the prosecution, not only were we the public excluded from whatever the national security discussion that was held, but the uss cole" defendant, the alleged bomber, was told he couldn't hear whatever the argument was in his death penalty case. it lasted seven, eight minutes and we don't even know if a witness was called, it was that secretive. >> carol rosenberg, thank you so

much for the report from guantanamo. meanwhile, security officials in northern ireland and across across the united are trying to prevent protests from disrupting the summit or creating other problems for law enforcement. nbc's jim maceda is live in skillen, northern ireland. where this is where we are. we're five miles from the resort where chuck is and the g-8 summit is taking place. and where thousands of antig-8 protesters were expected to march towards that venue right around now from here. i guess the headline, andrea, is that so far, it feels like a lot of people missed reading the memo. there are not thousands, as you may be able to see behind me. there may be 200 or 300 protesters. there weren't thousands this morning in their tents either camped out in a nearby soccer field. we went to see them expecting that many. the field was virtually empty.

we counted eight tents and many more press than protesters. one of my bbc colleagues called it the biggest non-event he'd ever covered. why is that? well, the most obvious reason for this kind of of relative no-show is the blanket security that i'm sure you've seen throughout the day. it's put many protesters off. the police have invited protests, but more than 8,000 of them are in the streets and on the waterways. they're controlling the river every three or four minutes. driving here yesterday by car from belfast we saw armed riot police in armored vehicles on every single bridge. there were dozens of them. as far as 60 miles out of town. so the protesters' plan, if this does become a march, is to march all the way to the g-8 venue about five miles away. they'll get nowhere near that. the police have already set up a massive mesh fence and cordon

that's going to block any of the protesters some three miles from the event. police are also saying that they're filtering out potential troublemakers long before that. there have been two arrests already. not very much because not very many incidents. bottom line, andrea, it is a lot less tense and a lot more passive than i certainly expected. >> and the weather is beautiful so it is a beautiful day at least for a protest. thank you very much, jim maceda in ireland. jury selection, meanwhile, for the george zimmerman trial entered its second week today in sanford, florida. zimmerman faces second degree murder charges for the shooting death of 17-year-old trayvon martin. mr. zimmerman has pleaded not guilty saying he shot martin in self-defense. we'll be following the pool selection throughout the day and inform you when the 40 individuals needed have been selected. every day we're working to be an even better company -

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president obama had to clear some big political hurdles to reach this point in his presidency. jonathan alter looks into some

of the pitfalls and successes for the president through the budget fights of 2011 and the 20122 2012 re-election campaign in "the center holds." congratulations, another book and fascinating insight and great reporting. what is the heart and soul of this in terms of what you're trying to convey about the man barack obama at the tail end of the first term going into some of the toughest fights yet? >> well, i think the 2012 election was what i call a hinge ever history. it was an extraordinarily important election. i want to do more though than a horse race book. i did pull back the curtain on a lot of what was going on behind the scenes but i also wanted to give people a sense of how this particular president who i've known for a pretty long time how

he copes with adversity and we forget that he came back just a year before the election, 2011, nate silver ran a big story in the "new york times" magazine -- "is obama toast?" he managed to persevere a comeback. he plays a long game. so he's in some trouble right now, but it would be a big mistake to count him out. he is an enormously competitive guy. he's a self-aware guy who, when there have been mistakes, tries to account for them pretty honestly. i've been critical of him on what's going on lately, i wouldn't count him out for rebounding from this. >> you says he has a schmooze nature. we in washington, we are here more than you, but you certainly see it from a good distance and a great perspective. knowing him so well. but it's been so mystifying to

people, long-standing allies on the hill, democrats in the senate and house, why he doesn't reach out more, why he doesn't invite them places and -- it's not that they need to be invited but they do need stroking. that's the way the game is played. >> exactly. so this is a real paradox. i have a line from bill clinton in the book where he says, how can this man be so good at the hard stuff like foreign policy and so bad at communicating with more than ten people? i think it goes to the fact that obama doesn't really see himself as a politician. as strange as that is. here is the guy, the first president in more than a half a century, to get a majority twice in both elections. and yet he kind of disdains not just the theater of the presidency but some of the just requirements of -- as i said in "the godfather," in the business we have chosen. the business he has chosen.

so he ends up leaving -- by missing that schmooze gene, by not really getting out and stroking people and reaching out to them, being too insular, he's leaving an important tool in the tool box. i think in some sense he recognizes that. he started to reach out a little more, playing golf with some republican senators. but he still -- it's not something that comes naturally to him. he's good at it when he needs to do it, but he just doesn't understand at an intuitive level the neediness of other politicians, of ceos. he doesn't understand how embarrassing it is for, say democratic senators to go home and be asked by their constituents, when is the last time you spoke to the president? and theyvy to say, 18 months ago. they don't want to have to say that. you know? these are parts of politics that he doesn't quite fully grasp. >> i wanted to ask you about the other success now.

you are new sith come -- don't know what you call it -- >> "alpha house" starring john goodman. >> it is online, it is on amazon. it got pick up. it is you and gary trudeau who have long been friends. fascinating to me. the real life model, of course, is -- dick durbin house on the hill. >> that's right. gary trudeau is the creator of it. clang it to four republicans living on the hill. the pilot did well enough on amazon -- this is online tv -- that they've ordered ten episodes that we're going to shoot this year and they'll be available on amazon in kind of a netflix type model in november. and it is just -- it's so fun. i have to tell you to work on. we're going to introduce a couple of democratic senators in to the mix. women senators. and it's a comedy but we're

trying to make it as authentic about washington as we can. and we're on the cutting edge of online tv which is coming very fast. >> it's really it's interesting. it must be so much fun. thank youcongratulations on the book and the tv series, jonathan, great to see you. >> thank you. good news out of britain, britain's prince phillip left london's hospital and is walking out on his own steam. doctors report that he is making satisfactory progress. buckingham palace says the 92-year-old will now be resting for two months before resuming his royal engagements in the fall. the cause for surgery has not been made public. ♪ [ panting ] uh... after you. ♪

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which political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? chris cillizza is back with us. chris, i know we're going to be talking about the summit in the next hour, because you're going

to hear from vladimir putin and president obama. but tomorrow you've got joe biden tomorrow talking about guns. and trying to get a background check, i guess. back on the agenda. >> fascinating, andrea. this is the first time and the white house hasn't released a lot of details on this. what we do know is what you've said. joe biden will be talking about gun violence, gun safety tomorrow at the white house. you know, we haven't really heard to be honest since the senate deal or bill failed. joe biden has spoken occasionally about this. but what's interesting about this, andrea is not that i think it has a legislative future this year. because i don't think that it is. but that biden, this is personal for joe biden. i think it was personal before newtown. i think it's certainly personal after. this is something he's fought a long time for and i think he'll continue to advocate here. despite the fact that legislatively at least it does not seem to me likely that something comes back up around for a vote any time soon. >> i don't know whether or not we should rule it out completely, though, chris there

are rumblings on the hill that they might revisit this depending on if they get through immigration. >> it just, can they clear the decks? can they clear the decks, immigration, debt ceiling coming up in october, november. can they fit it in? president obama saying he's going to start on climate change in july. there's a lot to pack in there, andrea. i think it's a question of will, political will and can they fit it into what's a very busy schedule. >> chris cillizza, thank you very much. that does it for us, for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports," thanks for being with us. tomorrow on the show, the "new yorker's" joe packer and cos cosmopolit cosmopolitan's editor in chief. >> coming up in the next hour, breaking news, president obama and russian president putin are meeting now, discussing syria. white house chief of staff dennis mcdonough says the u.s. has rushed to war in the past and we're not doing it here. so then what is the plan? plus while still on the run, admitted nsa leaker, edward

snowden takes questions, live online in a chat. which by the way, just wrapped up. he talks about what he calls the president's broken promises. we'll have more on this unusual chat from this man still on the lam. and developing news, the youngest person ever to be put on death row, released from an indiana prison an hour ago, she confessed to the brutal murder, why is she free now? it is coming up and it is our "gut check." [ stewart ] we've never cooked anything like this before. [ male announcer ] introducing red lobster's seaside mix & match.

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ireland. while we don't know what putin is telling president obama, this is what he said before british prime minister david cameron in what's been described combative wording in a conference yesterday. >> as regards the supplies of weapons to the assad government and as regards to who has the blood of the children and peaceful citizens of syria, i believe you will not deny that the blood is on the hands of the both parties. >> joining me now to discuss the meeting live here in studio, former u.s. ambassador to nato and former undersecretary of state for political affairs under george w. bush nicholas burns and ryan walsh, senior editor of "time" magazine, thank you, gentlemen for joining us. let's start off with the comments from vladimir putin. "the new york times" categorized it as a combative style. brian, we wonder if that's the same style putin is using in the meeting right now with